Aug. 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AGEICULTURIST. 115 
<Jo not know its botanical name. My correspondeni 
tolil nie thnt the piaiit wms known under the name 
of Synanthera prepennia, hut S^nantheia is 
not ilif uame ot a butanical genus, so I believe 
this species has been determined as a plant of the 
Synanthera family, which will also be culled part 
of tlie " cornposiiie '" family. Tiie sample I liave 
liad^in iiand is really a plant of tliis family, 
buL I have noi had any flower, so I can Siiy noihing 
more. As the rejjion where the plant grows p' e- 
seuls many plants suitable for tlie dry countries 
of North Africa, it has great interebt for us. 
After many trials T liave received in good order 
seeds of the Mangiaba rubber (llencornia spe- 
ciosa). These reached me in the forests, packed 
in saw-ilust, but I believe it will never pay to 
import tlie seeds. All insects are fond of these 
seeds, and 1 liavf^ been obliged to place the pots on 
supports witli the feet of these supports in Lysol 
to avoid the incursions ot ants. It is a common 
proceeding in your countries, but not here. The 
seeds begin to germinate in a few days. The 
plants remain very delicate in our houses, but 
are easily propagated by cuttings. 
I trust some of your planters will be enterprising 
and kind enough to send me through you a few 
samples of the gum from sapotaceous plants from 
your fine country, and if possible latex from the 
same. The latter must be packed in bottles 
mixed with 2 per cent of formol,* I believe that 
will be sufficient for avoiding the coagulation of the 
latex, for 1 can do nothing with coagulated latex. — 
Truly yours A. GQDEFKOY LEBEUF. 
[The following are the trees of the order 
Sapotacece, mentioned in Trimen's " Handbook 
of the Flora of Ceylon,' of which the author 
says that ' all contain a milky juice, which, 
after evaporation of its liquid portion, affords 
that vaiiety of Caoutchouc known as Gutta- 
percha:— (1) Chi y- opiiyllii'ni ; (2) Sideroxylon ; 
(.3) Isonaii'ira; (4) B;tssia ; (5) Palaquium and (6) 
Mimusops — Ed. T.A.] 
TEA SEED FROM NATAL. 
AN INTICRESTING HYBRID, 
Ifafa, Alexandra County, Natal, May 28. 
Dear Sir,— At the request of the late Mr. 
John Eraser, of Umzimkulu, formerly well- 
known to you as of the "Brae Group" of 
Ganiens, Ceylon, I have taken the liberty 
of sending yoir, through Messrs. King and 
Sons of Durban, a sixiall box of tea seed. Mr. 
Eraser had a quantity, of the seed from me 
and mentioned that thei'e would probably be 
an opening for seed in Ceylon, so pleased was 
he with the jat. All the seed on niy place 
I have imported— some from Darjeeling, some 
from the Kodanaard (Nilgiris) and some from 
t ey Ion (from a Mr Inglis.) Consequently the 
seed I am sending you is a hybrid I shall 
take it as a great favor if you would kindly 
ask one of your friends to try the seed and 
let me know what you think of it. Our 
seed is ready for shipment February-April. 
Thanking you in anticipation, I beg to re- 
main, yours truly, 
JAS. A, MCMILLAN. 
[We will get the seed tried at once, but 
there is certainly no opening for tea seed in 
Ceylon !— Ed. T A.] 
* ? Ether or soine aoid.—Eo. ?'.4, 
THE OLDEST TEA-TREE, 
A SCOTTISH EX-PROPEIETOR'S CONFIRMATION. 
Edinburgh, May 28. 
Dear Sir,— A letter appears in your Over- 
land issue of 9th May by Mr. Cottam from 
Pen-y-lan estate, headed "Have we toitnd the 
oldest tea-tree ? " I think so : for on reading 
the name "Llewellyn ' and " Jt'en y-lan," a 
dormant memory of the decade forty is 
awakened. 1 remember Air. Llewellyn 
(senr.) visiting Captain Reddie at "Ihe Eagle's 
Nest " bungalow on Karagastenne estate, 
somewhere m the middle of the " forty de- 
cade," and of his saying either that he was 
about to experiment in planting tea, or that 
he had done so on his estate m Dolosbage, 
The tea-tree mentioned by Mr. Cottam cannot 
be under 55 years old— probably more, if it 
could be found out in what year Mr. Llewellyn 
bought and settled on Pen-y lan. — Yours truly 
P. D. MILLIE. 
"TEA SEED OIL": 
MR. DRUMMOND DEANE'S LATEST 
EXPERIMENT. 
Travancore, S. India, June 16. 
Dear Sir, — I have read with interest the ex- 
tracts you give of Mr. Thomas Christy s letter 
asking for information about Ceylon oils. Now 
I have been recently experimenting with tea 
seed oil, the seed taken from "China" and 
hybrid bushes, and am in correspondence with 
my London agents about it and am sending 
them a sample gallon of oil and also some 
of the poonac by next steamer from Cochin. 
The poonac when potash is added "lathers' 
freely and has the cleansing properties of 
soap. The oil is clear and not unlike olive 
oil ; 1 lb. of clean seed gives, so far as my ex- 
periments go, '20 11). clean oil, but I think if 
the poonac were boiled and oil taken out, 
it would be quite '25. Tea seed oil has been 
used in China from time immemorial for 
burning purposes ; for light, it burns well and 
gives little smoke. 
I am uiiaware that it has ever been tried 
as an article ot corriinerce, but the yield in 
low jat fields if not pruned frequently is 
very large and possibly it might pay plant- 
ers to abandon such fields for the purpose 
of converting the seed into oil. Next hot 
season I intend gathering off a field of low jat 
tea systettiatically, with the object of testing 
fully the cost of production. — I aiUj sir, 
yours faithfully, 
H, DRUMMOND DEANE. 
P.jS.— Before reading your article I was in 
correspondence with " Indian Gardening ' 
and the ■' I T. A." on this subject, and no doubt 
that paper will shortly have something to 
say about the matter, as I sent samples of 
oil and poonac for analysis. I am posting 
you a small bottle of ordinary oil. Some I 
have sent London is much clearer. Also a 
small piece of poonac in case you think it 
worth while to have them analysed for 
vour readers' information, 
H. D. D, 
